Two Minds

by Thethhron

Boots - Day 1

Benny Hill Got Nuthin' on Me

A massive blue dragon sailed across the morning sky. It was a good morning - his serfs had needed no reprimands, nor his female "attendants" any assistance. Even the meat had been good that morning. The mines were yielding huge amounts of gold, gems and other shiny objects. Out of the corner of his eye, he noticed a pinpoint of bright light in the distance. He turned his head just in time for an object to hurtle from the light and scrape some scales off the top of his head, leaving it defenseless and very tender. Roaring in pain, he swiped at the object, only to find it gone in some direction he couldn't follow. In a rage, he flew back to his home to organize a search party for the offending object, that he might crush it in his claws.

---

The sun shone high, just around 11 in the morning. A young dragon-child made her way towards the sea cliffs near her home in the dragon badlands, walking around the many hills. Living in a small kingdom of sorts, her life was not so nice as the lives of dragons who lived on their own. She served underneath a large, powerful and arrogant blue dragon who went by the name of Lord Foecruncher, working in the treasure mines. Free dragons came and went and did as they pleased; but for her and all the other dragons in the mountain, everyday was more endless drudgery.

Earlier, she had been the only dragon to see a small object shoot through the sky and land somewhere out near the sea-cliffs. Shortly after this, the lord had come back to the mountain kingdom in a rage, demanding to know if anyone had seen something in the sky and insisting a search party be organized to go search for it. When she had spoken up, she was also sent to go alone; the spot she had seen it fall was filled with all kinds of vile monsters and she was expendable.

She shivered as she recalled how he had promised her a "reward" when she returned. He probably thought joining his harem could be considered an honor. As she plodded along, she took care with her surroundings. She could spot possible haunts for the monsters out here, but her stealthy, two-footed walking would not save her from an accidental confrontation. She estimated two hours would pass before she safely reached where she believed the object to have impacted. Hopefully, she could avoid the lord's wrath for a while if she found it, maybe even find a way to refuse entrance to his harem.

---

I woke to the sound of waves crashing against a cliff. Opening my eyes, I discovered the nasty, mean sun and a fading headache; I promptly re-closed my eyes and rolled over.and pushed myself up. I stood and took stock of my surroundings, all of which had a dark border.

Sea - Check

Tall cliffs with spiky rocks at the bottom - Check

No vegetation to speak of - Check

Holey, craggy hills that litter the landscape like so many discarded pebbles off a dump truck - Check

I must be in Ireland.

Maybe New Zealand.

'So why am I in Ireland? Last I remember, I was watching the season 3 premiere. Then there was a swirly rainbow slide. Then I fell asleep and...dreamt I was Twilight Sparkle and her friends. Were those actually memories? Why were their weirdos at the gala? I don't remember them fro-'"AUUUGH!'

My head erupted in pain. I fell to the ground, rolling around as my brain tried to eat itself. Yet, as soon as it had come, the pain left, leaving me winded. After taking a few breaths to calm myself, I sat up and looked around. I'd never experienced anything like that before - that was far more powerful than any headache I'd ever had. As I felt around my head, I jerked my hand back as I felt something very much not hair twitch against it.

Reaching back slowly, I was met with a scaly protrusion that was attached to my head. Even more concerning was that it seemed to have replaced my hair entirely. Pulling it around revealed what I had felt before - a scaly tendril that I could feel through. A blue scaly tendril. The same color of my now scaled hands. Reaching out, I examined my entire body. I could see that most of my chest and the inside of my legs and groin was a dark tan color, though it still seemed to be made of tiny scales. The back of my arms had scales slightly larger and blue, as did the outsides of my legs. Returning to my head, I realized that I had some kind of muzzle now and that instead of ears, I simply had ear holes. I really needed to find a pool of water or something else reflective. What had happened to me?

I went in search of still water in the area near where I had awoken. Finding none, I walked back to the small imprint on the ground where I had been laying, to find something entirely unexpected - my gamer chair, that had fallen with me. Still had the galaxy themed duct-tape I used to cover up the holes. That did not answer the question of how the hell it was here, in Ireland with me, after I had- Wait, how did I get to Ireland?

I shook my head, returning to the strange headaches that plagued me before.

So what caused that? Was it something I was doing? But I was just standing there! I wasn't talking or dancing or moving at all! Was it because I was thinking? But I'm thinking about stuff right now. Thinking about thinking about thinking. Meta-woooorld! But that still doesn't really explain it. Maybe it's ca- "GRAAAAH"

Again, pain interrupted my thoughts and I writhed in place before the pain dissipated and I could think again.

So.... Maybe thinking makes my head hurt. I've always said so but now it's true. If that's so, then I need to distract mys-

Ooo, wait, am I still a guy?

....

After several experiments, I determined the answer to be yes.

I looked around trying to find any unnatural tracks or markings but found none. Survival dictated I stay in one place but that relied on people actually knowing the general area I was in. I doubted my family or friends knew I was in Ireland after being kidnapped. Probably kidnapped. Or a blue...

What am I? Wish I could see face to know proper. With scales, I could be a lizardman or a snake dude or any other kind of reptile...thing for that matter. Although...Nope, no tail

Thank God it wasn't a fursuit. No zipper.

After examining myself and finding no injuries, I decided to search for civilization. No direction had any immediate signs, like smoke or pollution haze. In fact, the only interesting landmark was a nearby mountain. As I was walking towards it through the short craggy mounds, I did chance across a still pool after about five minutes. 'Finally, some answers.'

I was likely less shocked than most people would have been but I'm pretty laid back all things considered. I recognized the facial makeup.

I appeared to be a dragonborn. No, not the dude from that one game, like a Dungeons and Dragons one. Humanoid but with scales and stuff. And my face was completely different of course.

Having a much better view of my body now, I could see the outsides of my arms and legs were layered with skin hugging scales that occasionally poked up towards my torso. My back had larger scales that seemed a little stronger. I might have been taller than I used to be; I couldn't really tell without some kind of measuring device. I had a muzzle on my face, nice sharp fangs and some cool looking head frills that seemed to act kind of like hair.

Well. I guess I finally got that height I always wanted. Even if it did come through some forgotten sci-fi freak transformation.

But back on topic. Why am I in Ireland? For now, the most obvious guess is someone drugged me, kidnapped me, performed SCIENCE! on me, and left me for dead . Now then-'

"SHIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIT!"

I turned around. Somehow, a massive scorpion, at least three times my size, had snuck up on me. I wasn't quite within range of its tail and... well, I got the feeling it was hungry. I started to back around the pool slowly, keeping my eyes glued to his tail. The scorpion started hissing. That was the only cue I needed. I booked it. The scorpion was fast but the many short, craggy mounds were slowing it down. I found a cave out of its view and ducked into it.

Taking some breaths to calm down, I turned into the cave and saw... three leopards staring back at me. I swear they were grinning.

Well, fuck you too universe

My day did not get any better.

---

The young she-dragon heard some kind of ruckus emanating from the mounds an hour before she reached where she suspected the object to have fallen. She heard yells, clattering, and shortly a number of terrified screams. Utterly confused, she moved closer and stood witness to one of the oddest and possibly funniest scenes she had seen in her life at the mountain.

A bipedal, vaguely draconic creature was being chased by pretty much every type of dangerous animal in the area. Ten leopards, eight scorpions, and five titan spiders were in hot pursuit; even a couple of ant-lions had crawled out of their pits to chase the strange creature. As she watched, she lost track of the participants as the zig-zagged around the rocks. Sometimes the creatures would pop out of nowhere and she swore there were more than she had originally seen. Eventually, all the participants re-convened on a single path - one that passed near the mound the young dragoness was currently perched on.

Acting before the chase could see her, she hopped down and hid in a crevice. As the biped ran in front of her, she pulled him in with her and hit the back of his neck, rendering him unconscious as the rest of the chase sped by, unheeding. Quickly, she darted away with her comparatively light cargo.

---

I regained consciousness slowly. My neck felt sore and bruised. Still, the ground beneath me felt comfortable at the moment, warm sun shining down on my face.

Then the monsters chasing me bubbled out of my memories. How I wasn't dead was a mystery. Clearly something had rendered me unconscious and that meant I should have been dead. Despite my evasive maneuvers, I'd never lost any of my pursuers; they'd been hot on my trail when- Something grabbed me!

Jerking to a sitting position and looking around, I thanked the good Lord in heaven there were no beasts in front of me.

"Eh-hem"

I stood and spun around to find a dragon with a strange expression behind me. The dragon's scales were dirty and dull, creating a gray coloration on what I assumed would otherwise be white scales. It was about the same size as me and was sitting on its hindquarters, arms crossed in front of it's chest. The neck wasn't long, only slightly longer than my own neck. The face was still round, kind of like Spike's but the muzzle was extended a little further and seemed less angular. I wasn't sure but I thought the body seemed more muscular than the average dragon might, though, given that my knowledge of dragon anatomy couldn't fill a thimble, that was mostly conjecture. There were a few scars here and there, marring the otherwise whole skin, detracting a bit from the majestic image.

But the eyes.... When I looked at them finally, the eyes were incredible. Unlike what one might expect, the pupils were human, almost anime-like, instead of the reptilian they should have been. The irises were truly golden, almost shining with inner glory and light. There was intelligence and power there and I found myself lost in the pools.

"Beautiful..." I mean, I don't normally compliment people outright, but those eyes were just....I can't even describe it. An itsy-bitsy-witsy little voice in the back of my head voiced some concern at my sudden lack of clear thought but I ignored it.

The dragon blinked at that as blush spread across Its face. "W-What?" I broke out of my stupor, surprised at the speech. The dragon talked! The voice seemed feminine, so I guessed it was female. Is she blushing? How do you blush with scales? Also, what was that weird mood I just broke from?

"I- uh-- that is-"

The dragon stared back at me, confusion written on her face.

“Um....Hi. Ni-nice day out, eh?” I grinned shakily

The dragon suddenly cracked a smile and shook her head. "You're weird." She stepped closer and started to sniff. What in the world? I know animals like to sniff new smells but she can talk! Doesn’t that mean a culture? Is sniffing a normal thing for her?

"What are you supposed to be?" Not the response I was expecting.

“I, uh, I'm a dragonborn. Kinda like humans. Do I smell or something?”

She blinked and stepped back, tilting her head in thought. "Uh, okay, how about a different question, what's your name?"

Do I not even get an answer? “Uh, Boots. I mean- yeah Boots.” While it wasn't my real name, something about this entire situation made me leery of giving out my actual name.

“Boots?” She inspected me a little more, crawling around and getting a full body view before stopping in front of me again.

"Well Boots, you’re my prisoner now. Let's get going." She smiled nervously. I frowned.

“Wait, what?! What did I do?”

Is she a dragon cop? They have Dragon cops in Ireland!? I haven’t even been here for an hour yet…. Yeah, okay that's silly.This is definitely not Ireland.

“I don't know, but I need to return you to my lord or I'm in trouble, so let's go." She suddenly bit my leg and tripped me, dragging me along with her mouth.

“FA! Ow, hey, what? Slow down a sec. Who is this lord? What did I ever do to him. Also, that hurts.” Man, this is some high-quality bullhockey. I wake up in an entirely new country, get chased by giant insects and now some kind of dragon-lady is taking me prisoner, by unnecessary force no less!

The dragon winced but continued dragging me. Okay, that’s downright rude. I reached up and clung to her head while I tried to pull my leg out mostly unscathed.

“Seriously, no, put me down. What's going on here?”

Instead of responding, she growled and clamped a little harder on my leg. “DAMN that hurts! Are you just going to keep ignoring me? I'm not about to go to court for something I know nothing about” I continued holding on to her head, though I’d given up on my leg. Any more pulling and I’d get a nasty gash from her teeth.

She groaned and spit my leg out of her mouth. "Look, I don't like it either, but there isn't much I can do, okay?!" I hopped off after she shook her head around.

"What do you mean? What's going on such that I have to come with you to some court, for doing something I'm not even aware of?”

She blinked. "What the heck does courting have to do with anything!" Her blush returned. "A-are you trying to court m-me? Is that why you said..." Man, that's some incredible shyness. Has no one ever complimented this girl before? I can’t claim to know anything about dragons but still. I didn’t think she was UGLY.

“Not that kind of court. You know a court of law? People on trial before a judge? Not courtship, geez. Not that you aren't- Nevermind. Not courtship. Laws, rules, stuff like that. I am going to a trial, right?”

Guilt splashed across her face and she looked away. "Well, no... not exactly."

I sighed. “Alright, please, let's just start from the beginning. Hi, my name is Boots. What's yours and what's going on?

She gave a sigh of her own, and finally met my eyes. "Hi... I'm Aurora... You hit Lord Foecruncher and now he wants you dead." I paused, trying to figure out what in the world she was talking about.

“Well, that's great. Who is this guy? And I'm pretty sure I haven't hit anything recently. Last time I punched something was...a few months ago at least, and it certainly wasn't a person.”

“No, I mean on the head, when you fell out of the sky. I'm supposed to retrieve you.”

“Fell out of the sky? Last thing I remember was sitting down watching TV and eating breakfast, followed by a massive vortex of whirling rainbows. Definitely not hitting some dragon on the head.”

Aurora gave me one of those looks when you’ve got a snake on your head and it's wearing a tiny sombrero and singing opera while... you get what I’m saying. Apparently, I’M the crazy one here.

Nothing new.

“So it doesn’t make sense. I never said that. My point is I definitely don’t remember colliding with a anyone’s skull at any point in recent memory.“

“That doesn’t mean you didn’t do it.” She deadpans.

“Alright, if I hit this guy in the head, why isn’t he here, instead of you? Is he just too lazy to get off his ass and confront me? I mean, I’m sorry if I did but I can’t exactly apologize to him if he’s not here.”

She shrugged. “Uh, well… I guess he didn’t see you as that much of a problem?”

“Then why in the world is he even having me brought back? If it’s not a problem, can’t I just tell you I’m sorry, it won’t happen again and be done with it?” I figured this Foecruncher guy must have had more than a few screws loose.

“Well…that’s not how it goes, no. Usually, the Lord looks at you, gives judgement, and then you go into the pit.”

“So he’s a tyrant. great. You’re a dragon, can’t you just eat- Wait, no, he’s another dragon isn’t he?”

Aurora blinked at that and cracked a small smile. “Well duh, what else would he be?”

“I don’t know! I just woke up here today! I don’t know jack shizzy about what’s going on right now.”

“Okay, okay, I get it…just, please listen. I hate that it has to be this way, and I’m sorry, but I need you to come back with me now.” She pleaded, moving for my ankles once again.

I hopped away from her talons. “So I can what? Die? Cause that’s pretty much what you told me would just happen.”

She grew a frown, and whimpered. “I really am sorry about it, but there’s nothing I can do. Don’t make it harder than it has to be.”

“What do you mean there’s nothing to be done? He’s already made it clear I’m not worth personally coming to get. I’ll just leave and you can say you didn’t find me- ” As angry as this entire conversation was making me, that train of thought caught up with me. If she came back empty-handed, she would probably die, from the sound of this brute. "Or would that get you killed?" That put me deep into thought.

Which, of course, meant I also ended up on the ground in pain.

The gray dragoness backed away quickly, eyes wide in shock. “Um…?”

Slowly, the pain passed and I regained my ability to breathe. Groaning as I sat up, I rubbed the side of my head and looked at her.

“Why don’t you just run away?”

Aurora gulped just as the words left my mouth, then began to furiously shake her head. “Mm-mm, that’s impossible, there’s no chance!”

“Why not? No one is out here right now besides you and me, right?” I got to my feet and dusted myself off.

She only continued to shake her head and back away. “They’ll find me, Lord Foecruncher is relentless, he’ll hunt me down, I'd never get a moment's rest!”

Guess this isn’t working. “He's too lazy to come get me but not to hunt down a dragon he knows? Well, you aren’t leaving me much of a choice either. Either I come back with you and die or we try to escape and have some kind of chance at BOTH of us living. So, are you coming?” I tensed up, readying to run.

“No, you’re coming with me so I don’t get in trouble.” She crouched down, and I could see the muscles in her hind legs tightening.

Great, more running. I released control over my legs, dropping straight to the ground as she leapt towards me. I could see her surprised expression as she went through the air I had just been occupying. Springing to my feet, I ran in the opposite direction, fast as my legs could carry me.

Now, I'm not a sprinter but I do compete in pole vault on the track team and I’m one of the faster short distance runners I know. Not to mention, I’d just outrun a ridiculous number of bugs not half an hour previous. Even more, since my new body HAD to be stronger to keep up this running, I felt like I was flying across the ground, certainly faster than I had traveled any time before in my life.

So, when Aurora caught up to me in 20 seconds, I think my high-pitched yelp of surprise was warranted as she pinned me to the ground. I stared up at her eyes, which wavered somewhere between anger and fear. As I stared deeper and deeper, the words coming out of her mouth were drowned out by the intense sorrow I was seeing. My heart felt fit to burst. How could I possibly let her keep all this locked under wraps? Time slowed to a standstill as I saw more and more. My eyes began to moisten and soon I couldn’t hold back my tears.

Kiss her

I wrapped my arms around her neck and tried to pull her down, my eyes never leaving those golden irises filled with pain and loneliness. Her eyes shot open and she stared at my approach. just before I made contact, she hopped to a nearby wall in a flash in shock. I shook my head at the sudden disappearance of her weight and we stared and each other momentarily before she looked away, red as a tomato. In a rush, my brain reappeared from wherever the fuck it had fled to and I locked up.

WHAT DID I JUST DO!?

As I tried to process what the hell had just possessed me to kiss someone - someone I didn’t know in the slightest - Aurora also recovered from the embarrassment that had overtaken her features. The blush receded and she looked back at me. Slowly, arms shaking, she stood on her hind legs and grabbed me under my armpits, pulling me off the ground. And now I’m scared again.

“Never. Again.” Have you ever been thrown into a climbing wall? If so, I’m guessing this back-crunching feeling is what you get. Jagged rocks poked into my back after she awkwardly flung my body to the nearest hill. I fell gasping but I knew I didn’t have much time to recover. As she stomped over to me, I bolted. This time, though, there would be no straight lines. She wanted a chase, she was going to get one.

Comments

[Ssendam the Masked]

Tsun Tsun

[Ssendam the Masked]

3579017
Dere dere.
Much Tsundere

[Maneiac]

NOW KISSU~!

[Black--Soul]

Confusion intensyfys...